


You Can Buy Hearts

by bold_seer



Category: Henry IV - Shakespeare, SHAKESPEARE William - Works
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ficlet, M/M, Past Prostitution, Royalty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-08 00:05:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7735117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bold_seer/pseuds/bold_seer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How do ask your best friend, is <i>that</i> what you do?</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can Buy Hearts

Poins gives him back the phone like it’s nothing. The words on the screen haven’t touched him, don’t mean anything. But if there was no truth to it, he wouldn’t just stand there. He’d be furious.

He says, simply, “Jack’s a miserable old drunk.”

Hal can picture the headlines already, every possible spin. Their big, obnoxious letters: _RENTBOY IN ROYAL COMPANY. PLAYBOY HAL PALS WITH PROSTITUTE._

They’ll ruin him. And kill his father. Could destroy the entire monarchy, once and for all. He’ll have to renounce his claim to the throne, and hide away forever like a faded rock star. Somewhere in the Mediterranean, in the arms of a pretty local girl. Wouldn’t stop the press from writing about him - _FRENCH COMFORTS FOR FORMER PRINCE._

“You know what it sounds like.”

“Like I’m a cheap floozy?” Poins does a mock curtsy. “Or not so cheap, Oxford and all.” He shrugs. “Tuition.”

Hal keeps himself from biting his lip. He knows about Doll. Everyone knows about Doll. But how the hell did it escape Hal that his best friend had found himself a sugar daddy? Rented out himself, his company, to some sleaze off the net.

Him? Them? Was there one patron? Hal feels a wave of nausea, that shot after you’ve had one too many. The idea that he’s next in line for Poins, that this has all been an _un_ dress rehearsal for snagging a prince.

Except they’ve never –

He remembers Poins in the bar, performing an obscene party trick with his tongue. Hal had laughed at the time. How do ask your best friend, is _that_ what you do? Because Jack says it is.

Poins can be charming. Hal’s known that since the first time he saw him, dressed entirely in black, chipped nail polish and all. Sometimes sullen, always sharp-witted, but slighter and quieter, more guarded than anyone else Hal’s met here, so obvious in the favours they’re after.

But then, his own body doesn’t belong wholly to himself either. Eventually, he must marry and produce an heir, as his father before him. Poins had made light of his inability to find a suitable woman. He didn’t understand; Hal couldn’t even be queer.

“So what if it’s true?” It’s both a dismissal and a plea for Hal not to judge him. “First year at uni, I hadn’t even met you. It’s nothing to do with you, Hal.” _I had a life before I started circumnavigating yours._

Only everything’s to do with him, Hal, Harry. Henry, Prince of Wales, whose path in life was decided for him before he was even conceived of, let alone conceived. Everything he’s ever touched, every person he’s ever stood next to, everything reflects on him.

( _He paid for your time? For – things. An arrangement. It ended._ )

“I’ve never asked you for anything.” Poins’ voice fades to a whisper. “Only you.”

 _I know_ , Hal thinks. But he says nothing, and the silence grows between them, sour and uninviting.


End file.
